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OFFICE OF WAR INFORMATION 

i, THE LIBRARY Of 

CONGRESS 

SFPiai RFCORD 

MAY 191944 

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This Report on Air Transport Is 


ADVANCE RELEASE 


For Monday Morning Papers 


June 7, 1943 


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OFFICE OF WAR INFORMATION 

AMERICAN AIR TRANSPORT 

4 

The Office of War Information today issued a report covering all 
phases of American air transport at the present time. Among the 
facts brought out in the OWI report are the following: 

1. The Army Air Force Air Transport Command alone is larger 
than all air transport organizations, civilian and military, in exist¬ 
ence all over the world before the war. 

2. The Naval Air Transport Service and the commercial air lines 
are also carrying great quantities of cargo and great numbers of per¬ 
sonnel, chiefly of a military nature, and all operations are steadily 
expanding. The number and length of air routes flown increase 
constantly. 

3. These achievements are being made in passenger and bomber 
planes, many of both the older and the newer models of which have 
been converted for cargo-carrying needs. Not a single plane origi¬ 
nally conceived solely to carry cargo is in service in the Western 
Hemisphere at the present time, although several are in the process 
of design and manufacture. 

4. The Army and Navy air transport services have been greatly 
aided in their work by the past activities, and by the personnel, of the 
commercial air lines. 

5. This great wartime expansion of air transport is being accom¬ 
panied by a vast, world-wide development of air ways, communica¬ 
tions, and airports* which will be available to serve civilian air trans¬ 
port needs after the war. 

6. During 1943 the total production of the American aviation in¬ 
dustry—cargo and combat planes together—will reach the total of 
$20,100,000,000, a fourth of our war budget for the year and almost 
a seventh of the estimated national income. This is in contrast with 
the automobile industry, which at its peak in 1941 reached only to 
$3,700,000,000. About two and a half million trained workers are 
now turning out combat and cargo planes, and almost all airplane 
plants are capable of total conversion to the production of civil 
aircraft. 

7. Nevertheless, the Civil Aeronautics Administration warns against 
extravagant claims on the subject of future peacetime air transport. 
High cost per ton-mile (not a prime consideration in military opera¬ 
tions) and immense problems of refueling are deterrent factors, and 

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it is unlikely that the “ airplane will drive other forms of transporta¬ 
tion out of business/’ as some aviation enthusiasts are inclined to 
prophesy. 

The OWI report was prepared in consultation with the Civil Aero¬ 
nautics Administration, the Civil Aeronautics Board, the War Pro¬ 
duction Board, the Air Transport Command, the Naval Air Transport 
Service, and other public and private organizations. 

Picture of Wartime Air Transport 

Perhaps the scope and the regularity of air transport today, most 
of it devoted of necessity to the needs of war, are best illustrated by 
the recent but already celebrated complain of a young Air Transport 
Command pilot in Washington: “My laundry’s in India—I can’t get 
it till next week.” A pilot on the Lisbon-New York run recently 
flew the Atlantic four times within three days. Another pilot recently 
crossed the ocean twelve times in thirteen days, making one round-trip 
in less than twenty-four hours. At ATC flying fields, self-assured 
youthful veterans of the Ferrying Division deliver to still more 
youthful beginners lectures studded with the names of distant cities 
and island bases, and with details concerning landmarks, airports, 
weather, communications, and other navigation aids. Together, the 
Army and the Navy air transport services are now averaging several 
hundred trans-Atlantic flights a week alone, and the number is 
steadily increasing. 

The measure of the value of wartime air transport lies not only in 
the bulk carried but also in the rapidity with which the stripped, 
camouflaged planes can complete each mission and be ready to start 
another. Large objects like light tanks and jeeps, for example, are 
transported across the ocean by air only in cases of emergency, and 
even in combat areas they are seldom loaded into planes. About 
the bulkiest objects commonly carried by air are airplane engines; 
these and plane parts of all kinds form some of the most frequent air 
cargoes at the present time. Speed is the keynote. An Air Transport 
Command plane recently flew from Australia to California in the 
record flying time of 33 hrs. 27 minutes. Medical supplies and blood 
plasma, things that are needed urgently, are flown to their destinations 
as fast as they can be got there. A complete hospital was flown to 
Alaska in 36 hours. 

Planes which fly needed cargoes out to combat areas and elsewhere 
return loaded whenever possible, often with strategic materials used 
in our war plants for the manufacture of goods which will be flown out 
in turn. 

Block mica has been flown in from India. Planes have brought 
back platinum from the Persian gulf, beryl ore, quartz ciystals, 


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industrial diamonds, and mica from South Africa. Crude rubber has 
been air-freiglited from Brazil, balsa wood from Central America. 
Twenty tons of rubber seeds were ferried from Liberia to the Western 
Hemisphere. Insecticides made from Brazilian roots are flown to 
various bases. A certain type of Fiji Islands beetle was flown to 
Honduras to check a root weevil attacking hemp. 

Tonnages involved are often large for air freight. In eight weeks, 
32 tons of bristles for the Navy, 70 tons of silk for parachutes, 47 
tons of tin, and 70 tons of tungsten were moved from China to India. 
On another occasion, 98 tons of tungsten were flown out in ten days. 

Recently planes returning from cargo-canying flights to the 
Bahamas have been bringing back numbers of agricultural workers to 
be employed on American farms. 

Planes returning from combat zones also bring back human cargo. 
Wounded enlisted men and officers, cases which call for treatment 
that is available only here at home, are evacuated in transport planes 
converted into flying hospitals. A number of serious cases recently 
reached Bolling Field, Washington, from India in 5 days—a distance 
of over 10,000 miles. On the planes on such flights are air evacuation 
nurses—graduates of the school of Air Evacuation Nurses at Bowman 
Field, Louisville, and also a medical sergeant with the rank of staff 
sergeant. All transport planes are being equipped to carry standard 
stretchers for the evacuation of wounded. Up to thirty may be 
carried in a plane, depending on its size; often they are brought di¬ 
rectly from the battlefield in smaller planes and moved to a big plane 
at a base. 

Battle-damaged submarines in distant waters receive repair parts 
by air and are in action again in a few days instead of being idle a 
month. Auxiliary fuel tanks are flown to fighter planes, which imme¬ 
diately begin to cover larger areas than previously possible. Every 
day for many months transport planes have flown supplies to Guadal¬ 
canal from Pacific bases. Many Guadalcanal wounded were evac¬ 
uated by air. 

American Transport Planes 

The accompanying list of the chief models of transport aircraft now 
in service indicates the extent to which America is making use of her 
available planes for the purposes of wartime air transport. Begin¬ 
ning the war without a single plane specifically designed for the carry¬ 
ing of air cargo, and with the first such planes still in the experimental 
stage at the present time, the impressive air cargo transport records 
being made by the Army, the Navy, and the commercial airlines are 
being made in passenger and bomber planes, remodeled or adapted 
for their new work. 















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This means, of course, that present-day cargo transportation is 
being accomplished with a degree of efficiency considerably below 
that which would conceivably characterize planes specifically built 
for cargo purposes. B-24’s, for example, converted Liberator bomb¬ 
ers, are doing excellent service as cargo planes; but these bombers are 
so constructed as to require that their loads be carried in a concen¬ 
trated location. Lack of available space for loading within balance 
limitations both fore and aft of the center of gravity greatly limit their 
cargo load capacity, and the weights and balance officers who super¬ 
vise their loading have to exercise great care in distributing weight, 
particularly toward the tail. Planes originally designed for passenger 
transportation, too, even the newest models, such as the C-54 and the 
C-46, while they have greater capacity and space than bombers, are 
still far from ideal for the cargo-carrying work which they are per¬ 
forming so faithfully. Loading facilities, doors, and cargo hold-down 
facilities are afterthoughts. They aj^e frequently at locations that 
interfere with maintenance, and in other instances are too high for 
truck platform loading and inefficient as to structural weight. 

Present models of flying boats are particularly ill-suited to the 
carrying of bulky cargo, due to the small size of their hatches and the 
division of the plane into compartments by bulkheads which for 
structural reasons cannot be removed. 

Furthermore, engine choice, fuel capacity, landing speed, and other 
specifications of all these war cargo planes are aimed at general 
all-round utility rather than designed for the greatest economical 
efficiency for a particular route. 

In general, it may be said that a plane primarily designed to carry 
cargo could presumably be converted with comparative ease and with¬ 
out too great loss in efficiency for passenger use with the addition of 
seats, toilet facilities, and the like; or it could easily be converted to a 
bomber or flying fortress plane through the installation of guns and 
armor. The converse, however, is far from true. At present Ameri¬ 
can air transport needs are being filled by operations that show con¬ 
siderable ingenuity but which cannot be called efficient from any 
modern requirement of cargo-carrying economics. 

Nevertheless, makeshift as the fleet is for transport purposes, 
America has assembled what is by far the greatest air transport fleet 
in the world today. This country is fortunate in having had such a 
high development of air-line planes and operations at the beginning of 
the war. 

Air-Lines and Other Civilian Flying 

During 1941, their last normal year of operations, American com¬ 
mercial air lines carried 4,060,500 passengers, an increase of 45,000 
percent over the approximately 8,/00 carried m 1927. Between these 

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same years, air mail increased from 1,270,300 pounds to 44,595,300 
pounds, and air express and freight from 45,860 pounds to 22,315,000 
pounds. In 1941 domestic air-line routes totaled about 30,000 miles. 

Before Pearl Harbor, a maximum of 434 planes was being operated 
commercially within and beyond the continental limits of the United 
States by the air lines. They were divided as follows: 

Domestic_ 358 Hawaii_ 6 

Transoceanic_ 10 Alaska_ 7 

To Latin America_ 53 

On January 1, 1943, this number had been reduced to 256 (of which 

166 were flying domestically), and that remains approximately the 
number being flown commercially by the air lines at the present time. 
The rest have been taken over by the armed services, either outright 
or to be operated for them by the air lines under contract. Most of 
them have been stripped of their soundproofing and their upholstered 
chairs to make room for cargo, and equipped with folding metal 
“bucket seats” along the sides for the transport of paratroops and 
other combat units. In some, large doors have been cut for the load¬ 
ing of bulky freight, such as airplane engines and jeeps. Camou¬ 
flaged in tones of olive drab or blue, they are being forced somewhat 
more than when they were in air line passenger service—not only 
because they are carrying heavier pay loads but because with nor¬ 
mal fuel consumption an airplane covered with paint loses up to 
twelve miles an hour of the speed it flew when its gleaming aluminum 
was kept waxed and polished. All over the world these ex-air-lines 
planes, along with many other transport planes built since the out¬ 
break of the war, are being used for the transport of paratroops and 
other combat units, for glider towing, as ambulance planes, for the 
transport of staff, prisoners, mail, and important cargo of all kinds. 
Personnel transported in them are not as comfortable as air lines pas¬ 
sengers, and on night flights they and the flight orderlies rest as best 
they can on pads on the bucket seats, on the floor, or on top of crates 
and boxes. 

The drastic reduction in the number of airplanes available for com¬ 
mercial use in domestic service made it necessary to exercise, for the 
first time, a control over schedules. No schedule is continued in oper¬ 
ation unless it can be shown to be essential for war-transportation pur¬ 
poses, and the “Service Pattern” (the number of schedules to be 
operated on each authorized route, with stops to be made) set up by 
the Civil Aeronautics Board at the request of the Army is constantly 
revised. The 49-percent cut in air-line flight equipment has resulted 
in only a 29-percent cut in the number of schedules flown. 

The planes still operated commercially by the air lines are carrying 
only slightly fewer passengers than were carried by the whole fleet 
before the war, and more mail and express. In October 1942, air- 

























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cargo express was up 123 percent from the same month in the previous 
year. These achievements have been made possible by greatly im¬ 
proved maintenance facilities and by increased utilization and effi¬ 
ciency, including quicker turn-arounds. In November 1941, for 
example, the average daily mileage of a domestic air-lines plane was 
1,070 miles; as of March 1943, it was 1,625 miles, and the figure is 
increasing. Recently, however, the air lines stated that if they are to 
continue to carry the increasing quantities of air mail, passengers, and 
air express they will require more planes, and the Army, after con¬ 
sultation with the CAB and the Post Office Department, has agreed 
to release some. 

Flying is the only form of passenger travel at present selling tickets 
on a straight priorities basis. Members of the armed forces and 
government officials traveling on government business come first. 
Then, to the remaining extent of capacity, space is sold to other 
passengers. Except on the busiest routes, especially to and from 
Washington, space is usually obtainable, although not always for 
the particular flight desired. Sleeping accommodations have been 
removed from those domestic air-line planes which formerly had them. 

At present, three all-cargo commercial flights are operated by 
United States air lines on regular schedule—New York to Miami, 
New York to Salt Lake City, and from the Canal Zone to Lima, 
Peru, and thence on to Buenos Aires, the first regular cargo flight 
under the American flag in the international field. These operations 
are being performed in passenger planes converted to transport use; 
no planes originally conceived solely for the carrying of air cargo 
are yet in regular service in the Western Hemisphere. This is true 
even in Bolivia, Colombia and Central America, where inadequate 
rail transport resulting from difficult terrain has brought about what 
is probably the highest development of commercial air cargo transport 
in the world. 

Most of the 25,000 planes owned by private American flyers at 
the time of Pearl Harbor have by now, either been absorbed in the 
Civil Aeronautics Administration’s War Training Service (formerly 
the Civilian Pilot Training Program), or have been purchased by the 
Army, or are being operated by their owners or by other civilian 
flyers in the Civil Air Patrol (recently transferred from the Office of 
Civilian Defense to the Army). A certain number of industrial 
corporations, engaged in essential war production, own and operate 
their own planes. There is very little other private flying nowadays. 
In those areas where it is still permitted, a private flyer must obtain 
a clearance from the clearanse officer of the flying field from which 
he takes off. No flights may be made from uncertificated airports, 
such as flying fields on farms or private estates. In vital defense 


















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areas private flying is permitted only upon clearance by the area 
Fighter Command. 


The Air Transport Command 

Of the almost two hundred transport airplanes taken over from 
the commercial air lines by the armed services, many are being used 
by the Troop Carrier Command of the Army Air Force, whose func¬ 
tion is the tactical delivery of troops and supplies into actual combat 
zones; others are used by the Air Transport Command, which engages 
in much more far-reaching domestic and international transportation, 
both of personnel and cargo. 

The Air Transport Command (ATC), although it did not receive 
the majority of the planes taken over from the air lines, has been 
assigned by far the largest proportion of the transport airplanes pro¬ 
duced in the United States since the outbreak of the war—planes 
manufactured under contract to the War Department and under the 
supervision of the Materiel Command. Like the ex-air lines planes, 
most of these are equipped not with comfortable accommodations 
but with sterner fittings for the transport of military freight and 
passengers. All are painted olive drab or otherwise camouflaged, 
and bear the global insignia of the ATC. The ATC is at present 
performing scheduled world-wide operations that far exceed all pre¬ 
vious air transportation of personnel and cargo as to both route- 
miles flown and loads carried. 

The function of the ATC may be said to be threefold: 

1. Its Ferrying Division delivers all combat aircraft from factories 
to tactical air-force units wherever needed, both within the United 
States and overseas, including planes being delivered to our Allies 
under Lend-Lease. Planes to be ferried are carefully serviced in ATC 
hangars or by the Air Service Command (the maintenance, service, and 
supply agency of the Air Force) before taking off. The Ferrying 
Division includes the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), 
which performs domestic ferrying operations. 

2. In this country, with the cooperation of commercial air lines 
under contract to the War Department, the ATC conducts a Transi¬ 
tion Transport Training Program, in which Army pilots, graduates 
of various flying schools maintained by the Flying Training Command, 
are put through a course in specialized (Transition) training for the 
operation of various types of transport planes. 

3. The ATC establishes and maintains air routes and bases wherever 
necessary. It is the War Department agency for the transportation 
by air of cargo, personnel, and mail both within the United States and 
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Air cargo is prepared for ATC transport by the Air Service Com¬ 
mand, which repacks manufacturers’ and other goods so as to con¬ 
serve weight and space, marks each object with a color indicating 
destination—which may be anywhere from Anchorage to Karachi— 
and holds cargo ready for loading in warehouses on ATC flying fields. 
The number of such fields scattered all over the globe must remain a 
secret of war, as must the number of planes operated by the ATC. 
The fleet is operating over more than 90,000 miles of transport routes, 
which are being extended as fighting-front requirements expand. Over 
a number of the world’s air routes the ATC has established the first 
regular, scheduled service. 

Among the routes established by the ATC are the North Atlantic 
route from the northeastern United States to the United Kingdom, 
the route from the southeastern United States across the South 
Atlantic to North Africa, another trans-African route to the Middle 
East, a route from San Francisco to Hawaii and down the chain of 
Pacific Islands to Australia, and routes to Latin America and Alaska. 
Military air transport in northwestern Canada has largely been 
undertaken by ATC. 

Because planes originally conceived solely for the carrying of air 
cargo are not yet in service, the ATC is doing its work in converted 
passenger planes and converted bombers. Its principal planes 
(described in the accompanying catalogue) are the C-53, C-47, C-46, 
C-54, and C-87, with the C-GO, C-49, C-48, and converted B-24 
(C-87) also in use. Some are operated by Army pilots; others by 
air-line personnel, who wear the uniform of the ATC but with special 
insignia denoting rank—the captain of a plane, who wears four bars, 
being the highest ranking officer in this branch of the service. Nu¬ 
merous personnel of the air lines have been taken over by the ATC 
and other commands, not only as pilots but for other operations. 

To points within the Western Hemisphere alone the ATC is flying 
more than one million pounds of cargo each week, and if the war 
continues into 1944, its routes will probably be ten times as long as 
the combined routes of all the world’s pre-war air lines. The ATC 
does as much of its flying at home as abroad. Over 50 percent of all 
material destined for air shipment overseas is moved by air from inland 
United States bases to other points within the country for trans¬ 
shipment. Also, considerable cargo is carried domestically by the 
Air Transport Command—flown to army bases of all types throughout 
the country. 

For the month of February 1943, losses in the ATC were only four- 
hundredths of one percent, and they have never risen above one 
percent. In February, not a single plane was lost as the result of 
enemy action on the long Pacific route, “although”—to quote Major 

530392°—43-3 





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General Harold L. George—“there have been several attempts to 
interfere.” 

The Naval Air Transport Service 

Approximately parallel to the operations of the Air Transport 
Command, although on a smaller scale and without the Ferrying 
Service, are those of the Naval Air Transport Service (NATS), 
which is operating several hundred planes, including many flying 
boats, over 50,000 route miles. 

Navy transport planes are being flown either by former air lines 
pilots or by graduates of Naval Aviation schools trained in transport 
flying. Like the Army, the Navy has absorbed much ex-air-line 
personnel, many of whom are performing their same duties in the same 
places—but for the Navy and in Navy uniform. 

Aircraft types used by the Naval Air Transport Service include the 
Douglas DC-3 in the form of the R4D-1 and the R4D-3, correspond¬ 
ing to the Army C-47 and C-53; the Consolidated Coronado con¬ 
verted for use as a transport and designated PB2Y-3R; the Martin 
Mariner converted to a transport and known as PBM-3R; the 
Douglas DC-4 Skymaster, designated as R5D; the Lockheed 
Lodestar (R50), and others. The most marked difference between 
the Army and Navy Transport Services is in the Navy’s use of flying * 
boats for cargo and personnel transport—including the evacuation of 
wounded in amphibious warfare. The use of flying boats has been 
almost entirely relinquished by the Army. 

The NATS operates in three main divisions: Atlantic, West Coast, 
and Pacific. The Atlantic command, with headquarters at Patuxent 
River, Maryland, consists of squadrons serving the Atlantic coasts 
and islands of North, Central and South America, from Argentia, 
Newfoundland, down through various bases in the continental United 
States to Guantanamo, San Juan, Antigua, Santa Lucia (Trinidad), 
Natal and Rio de Janeiro, as well as to Portland Bight (Jamaica) and 
Coco Solo in the Canal Zone. The Atlantic Command also extends 
across the ocean to Europe and South Africa. From headquarters at 
Alameda, California, squadrons of the West Coast Command operate 
schedules for the transcontinental service and also serve western 
Canada and Alaska, flying specially equipped and winterized planes. 
Pearl Harbor is the headquarters of the Pacific Command, operating 
schedules in the Pacific Ocean area, primarily southwest through the 
Pacific Islands to Australia, with at least daily service to all points. 

As contrasted with the Air Transport Command, the vast majority 
of the operations of the Naval Air Transport Service take place 
between a point within the continental United States and an overseas 
destination. 


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To coordinate activities between the two services, and to avoid 
unnecessary duplication of operations, a joint Army-Navy Air Trans¬ 
port Committee meets regularly in Washington. There are three 
representatives of the Army, three of the Navy, and the chairman of 
the Civil Aeronautics Board. The ATC and the NATS constantly 
transport each other’s personnel and cargo as space allows. 

The Marine Corps does not operate a separate air-transport service, 
although its squadrons do include a number of transport planes, ac¬ 
tive particularly in the Pacific. The Coast Guard does not include 
air-transport operations among its various aviation activities. 

The Future of Air Transport 

1. THE EXPECTATIONS 

In 1938 the total production of the aviation industry—cargo and 
combat planes together—amounted to a mere $280,000,000. It 
soared to a $1,800,000,000 in 1941 and in 1942 made another huge 
jump to $6,400,000,000, second only to the steel industry. During 
the present year, according to the latest WPB figures, it will be three 
times as large. It will reach the colossal total of $20,100,000,000, a 
fourth of our war budget for the year and almost a seventh of our 
estimated national income. Automobile production, which so pro¬ 
foundly influenced every part of America and all of its institutions, 
traditional points of view, industrial technology, marketing practices, 
and general cultural patterns, reached at its all-time peak in 1941 
merely $3,700,000,000. President Roosevelt recently stated that on 
the basis of unit weight, aircraft production for 1944 is expected to 
be 55 percent larger than the enormous 1943 production. About two 
and a half million trained workers are now turning out our cargo and 
combat planes, and almost all of our plants are capable of total con¬ 
version to the production of civil aircraft. 

As to numbers of American transport planes, no definite figures can 
be given at the present time because of wartime restrictions. But it 
may be said that more than one-fourth of all twin-engined and 4- 
engined aircraft manufactured in 1943 will be transports, and that if 
all the cargo planes expected to be delivered to the armed services in 
1943 could be imagined as assembled in a single area, and all taking 
off simultaneously for the same overseas destination, each of them 
carrying fuel for a 2,000-mile flight, they could have on board a total 
of over 20,000 tons of cargo. 

An additional factor bearing upon the future of American air trans¬ 
port is the number of persons who will be air-minded after the war, 
including probably the majority of over 3,000,000 men who will be in 
the air forces by the end of this year as trained pilots, navigators, 
radiomen, airport engineers, traffic controllers, and the like. Also 





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to be considered are the numbers of military planes which after the 
war will, presumably, be available for conversion to transport use if 
such conversion is not, by that time, considered uneconomical because 
of bombers’ notoriously restricted cargo capacity and expensive main¬ 
tenance. 

These, then, are some of the reasons wffiy the Civil Aeronautics 
Administration soberly contemplates that before 1950 the United 
States may well have half a million private, commercial, and military 
planes in active service. This may seem like a lot, but in planning 
future airways services CAA considers that it must count on that 
number. The National Resources Planning Board estimates that 
“within the next decade or two, air travel in the United States will 
assume approximately 70% of present-day Pullman rail travel, or 
about 6 billion revenue passenger-miles,” which means the transpor¬ 
tation of approximately 20,000,000 passengers a year. The Civil 
Aeronautics Board expects this figure to be reached by 1946, and that 
by the same year transoceanic and international air passenger traffic 
under the American flag will increase 6 tunes and mail and express 
traffic at least 8 times over that carried during the year ending April 
30, 1942. The Planning Board also estimates that all long-haul first- 
class mail will go by air, and that there will be regular air freight lines, 
wdth feeder air lines to smaller cities and pick-up service in the villages. 

Post-war flights (by shortest routes) between Washington, D. C., 
and other cities of the world will be possible on the following schedules: 

Less than 7 hours to Mexico City. 

Less than 8 hours to Panama City. 

8 or 9 hours to Seattle. 

10 or 11 hours to Paris or London. 

16 hours to Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, or Istanbul. 

18 hours to Cairo or Buenos Aires. 

22 hours to Tokio. 

24 hours to Shanghai or New Delhi. 

26 hours to Chungking or Cape of Good Hope. 

The following are some of the expectations concerning air transport: 

Planes .—By 1945 it is expected that transport planes in the 100,000- 
to 120,000-lb. class will be flying in quantity. On trips the length of 
New York to Chicago, such airplanes would carry 15 tons at 250 miles 
an hour. This is a capacity of 3,750 ton miles—about ten times as 
much as the DC-3. Among planes at present flying, the Curtiss C-46 
is credited with having done much to convince aeronautical engineers 
of the higher efficiency of larger planes, which can carry a higher 
percentage of load for the same proportion of horsepower. A power¬ 
ful trend for commercial transport, therefore, will be toward these 
larger planes. It is expected that both two-engine and iour-or-more- 
engine types will continue to be built the former (or economy, foi 
use on shorter hops, as the present C-46; the latter, like the C-54, 




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with what is at present, at least, considered to be their greater safety 
factor, for longer and transoceanic work. (The ATC, however, now 
uses the C-46 for transoceanic flights.) A multi-engine plane has a 
greater “ one-engine-out ” horsepower; if one of four engines goes out, 
one-quarter, not one-half of the total horsepower is lost. Because the 
material is critical and because of various developments that are still 
in the experimental stage, it is not expected that any important pro¬ 
duction of cargo planes using magnesium can take place for at least 
two, and possibly three years. Such construction is, however, po¬ 
tentially sound and in long-range consideration may be important. 

As to the place of flying boats in the future of air transport, varying 
opinions exist even within the Navy itself, where most of those already 
built are in service. Due to their present slow speed and difficulty 
in handling, there is wide objection to their use, particularly since 
swifter land planes are now commonly flown over water, and airports 
to receive them exist almost everywhere. But improved handling 
devices, already designed, would aid greatly in moving flying boats 
more expeditiously from water to land for docking purposes, and speed 
increase would be facilitated by the construction of sheltered, canal¬ 
like water runways, which would enable flying boats to rid themselves 
of some of the heavy equipment now carried for landings in compara¬ 
tively rough water. At certain locations, it may well be impossible 
to build land runways of the great length required by some of the 
incoming models of land planes; in such cases flying boats landing on 
water runways might offer a solution. Furthermore, in time of war, 
water surfaces are not vulnerable to bomb damage. 

As already mentioned, the cut-up interior of present-day flying 
boats makes them unsuitable for the transport of bulky cargo; new 
designs are called for. 

Although in smaller models the construction of flying boats’ land¬ 
ing gear makes them heavier than land planes of the same size class, 
the opposite is the case on larger models. Landing-gear weight does 
not increase proportionately with the size of a flying boat, and large 
flying boats have greater cargo capacity than land planes of the same 
empty weight. 

Gliders .—If the maximum load that a cargo plane can fly with is 
limited by the plane’s structural strength or cubic capacity, added 
carrying capacity can very well be supplied by the use of a glider in 
tow. Although gliders are advantageous in special cases and partic¬ 
ularly in military use, their use is less important over long ranges in 
cargo carrying on large scale. They are useful when an airplane 
wishes to drop a load without landing, and they can be picked up by 
planes in flight. In wartime they are good for one-way trips—landing 
in rough places and staying there. Although glider enthusiasts expect 

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wide post-war use of this craft for freight- and passenger-carrying pur¬ 
poses, the entire aviation industry is by no means in agreement. 
Two companies have already fixed applications with the CAB for 
cargo-carrying air service which will utilize glider towing by aircraft. 

Pick-up .—The nonstop pick-up system, for the collection and 
delivery by air of mail and light express in small cities and com¬ 
munities without adequate airport facilities, is in use at the present 
time, under government contract, on five routes totaling about 1,400 
miles a day, in New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Kentucky, Ohio 
and West Virginia. The operating center is Pittsburgh. The pick¬ 
up system is operated by releasing packages and picking them up by 
means of a lowered cable operated on a reel inside the airplane. 

There are now 25 applications for the establishment of similar 
services before the Civil Aeronautics Board, covering all parts of the 
country, with considerable added expansion expected. 

Helicopters .—Three applications for Helicopter service have already 
been filed with the Civil Aeronautics Board; one, from an air-line 
company, requested “Helicopter service to carry air mail and express 
to and from the roof tops of over 400 post offices and railroad stations 
in the six New England states and New York.” Helicopters—or some 
form of rotating wing aircraft—are generally considered one of the 
coming types of craft for the post-war private use market. 

Lighter-than-air craft .—There is no production in this country at 
the present time of lighter-than-air craft of large-load-carrying rigid 
design such as the Zeppelins, the Akron, or the Macon. The possi¬ 
bilities of stimulating their production involve extensive problems, 
at least under present conditions. According to their record, their 
ton-mile capacity per pound of critical material used is not impressive, 
although their long-range ability must still be considered of interest 
in special cases. 

2. LIMITING FACTORS 

Other statements concerning the future possibilities of air transport, 
more far reaching than the official expectations and less firmly based 
on actual conditions, are frequently made in newspapers and maga¬ 
zines. “The United States should immediately undertake to provide 
an air fleet designed to carry the bulk of the nation’s and the world’s 
cargoes.” “The airplane will be completely accepted as the only 
suitable means of intercontinental travel. It will drive other forms of 
transportation out of business.” 

Such is a frequent type of statement by aviation enthusiasts, 
and it is best answered, perhaps, in the words of C. I. Stanton, Civil 
Aeronautics Administrator: “It is perfectly obvious that in the 
not too distant future high-value cargo of all kinds will be commonly 
transported by air both domestically and overseas; planes will carry 










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passengers, mail, express, and freight in ever-growing quantities. 
But why stretch the facts? Why claim that air transportation will 
be the only form of transportation? Far from bringing about a 
decrease in surface traffic, expanded air traffic will increase it, for the 
fuel to keep the planes in the air will have to be hauled by surface 
craft.” 

More is required for a successful air transport system than merely 
the planes and pilots which America will have available in such great 
quantities after the war. 

Availability and expense of fuel are limiting factors in air transport 
today, and will continue to be so as long as airplanes fly on gasoline. 
Original investment costs are also still relatively high. Present 
planes and planes being developed along the lines of present types are 
not ideally adapted to carry heavy freight long distances. Flights 
technically possible are often, as a matter of actual performance, still 
out of the question because of want of navigation facilities along the 
way or lack of adequate airports and repair shops, as well as refueling 
facilities. 

On an air map, for example, the route from Chicago to Calcutta 
might ideally be across the Arctic Ocean and the North Pole. Such a 
route would be much shorter than the old shipping route via the 
Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Indian Ocean. But the absence 
of navigation aides and refueling facilities along the way forms a 
serious deterrent. From time to time, round-the-world commercial 
air routes will probably bear some relation to populated areas. Cer¬ 
tainly if a world-wide air transport system is to develop, gasoline tanks 
will have to be more thickly scattered around the world than at present. 

Gasoline is heavy. On long-range flights, the weight of a plane’s 
fuel may well surpass the weight of its engines. And if a plane flies 
to an area which is without oil resources, fuel for its return flight has 
to be got there somehow. 

“A Clipper can carry 8 % tons of freight from New York to England 
if it refuels in Newfoundland,” Mr. Stanton says, “whereas a 10,000- 
ton surface freighter can carry from six to eight thousand tons of 
cargo, together with fuel and stores for the round trip. Therefore a 
good many hundred Clipper trips would be needed to carry the 
tonnage which one 10,000-ton water-borne freighter can handle on one 
voyage. Furthermore, 8,500 tons of gasoline would have to be got to 
England to fuel these hundreds of Clipper trips back to Newfoundland, 
and 10,500 tons would have to be got to Newfoundland to fuel them 
between Newfoundland and England and Newfoundland and New 
York. Thus more than two surface freighter loads of gasoline must 
be carried to Newfoundland and England to permit the air delivery of 
a cargo which one freighter could carry across. This more than 








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doubles the surface vessel cargo tonnage requirements. The more 
planes that fly, the more ships will have to sail.” 

Furthermore, plane rates per mile are still considerably higher than 
those offered by truck, railroad, and steamship. “For various perish¬ 
able products,” Mr. Stanton says, “and for many products of a high 
per-unit value such as films, radios, precious metals, and women’s 
clothes, speed of delivery may well pay for itself. But for heavy 
products, including raw materials, speed is less important than 
steady, voluminous flow. Even if air cargo costs could be cut from, 
the present average of 40 cents a mile to 10 cents, they would still 
be enormously higher than those of the railroads and steamships, 
which express their costs per ton-mile in mills, not cents. It is only 
logical to expect that the plane will greatly supplement—but that it 
will not supplant—other means of transport.” 

The time and expense required in the development of each new 
model must also be taken into account in any consideration of present- 
day aircraft. The remark so often heard in aviation circles—“by the 
time an airplane is perfected, it’s obsolete”—testifies to the rate of 
change in everything pertaining to flying today. 

The CAB and the CAA 

Federal responsibility for civilian flying is divided between the 
Civil Aeronautics Board and the Civil Aeronautics Administration, 
which together form the Civil Aeronautics Authority. 

The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) is an independent quasi¬ 
judicial body of five members appointed by the President for six-year 
terms, serving under a Chairman and Vice Chairman. The Board 
is the Federal agency charged with the economic and safety regulation 
of all United States civil aviation; it lays down all major policies 
concerning the development of civilian flying; and it grants certifi¬ 
cates of public convenience and necessity to the air lines, which author¬ 
ize them to operate over certain routes. The Board establishes the 
rate of pay for mail carried by the air lines, exercises control over 
passenger fares, promulgates the Civil Air Regulations and sets oper¬ 
ational standards for American civil airplanes and pilots. Its Safety 
Bureau investigates all civil aircraft accidents for the purpose of 
ascertaining the probable causes and preventing their recurrence by 
appropriate action and regulation. 

The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA), on the other hand, 
is not a policy-making, but an operating agency, with four main divi¬ 
sions: Federal Airways, Airports, Safety Regulation (enforcing CAB 
standards), and the War Training Service. It tests, and issues cer¬ 
tificates to all civil airmen—not only pilots, but mechanics, radio 
operators, traffic controllers, meteorologists and other aviation 


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specialists. It checks the designs of all planes before they are put 
into commercial use, makes flight tests of representative models, 
patrols the airways and acts as a consultant in the development of an 
adequate nation-wide system of airports. In general, the CAA is 
authorized “to encourage and foster the development of civil aero¬ 
nautics and commerce in the United States and abroad.’’ 

Neither the CAA nor the CAB has authority over military planes 
or over military fliers except when they are using the Federal Airways 
or other CAA air facilities. 

Airways and Navigation Facilities 

By now there are probably comparatively few people who believe 
that air-line pilots flying passengers and cargo on schedule simply 
climb into their planes, take off as they wish to, follow any route they 
choose, and land at their destination by simply coming down when 
they get there. Actually, of course, before taking off, the air-line 
transport pilot checks weather data and files a flight plan in which 
proposed route, altitude, and speed are specified and which is cleared 
by the proper airways traffic controls. In peacetime such procedure 
was not necessary for the nonscheduled commercial operator or the 
private flyer, so long as kept off the Federal airways. But these 
operations are now under severe restrictions dictated by reasons of 
military security. 

Today, practically every flight by a transport plane is as controlled 
as the run of a railroad train. Rights-of-way—the airways—are 
marked by radio beams and visual aids; “Keep to the right” is the 
rule of the airway as of the road; there is two-way radio communication 
with airports and control centers along the airways; at any time the 
pilot can “ask for the weather” from any radio station along the air¬ 
way. (Today weather information is supplied in code, for reasons of 
military secrecy.) Radio range markers, operating by remote control 
and serving the airports as well as the airways, are constantly sending 
out the directional beams by which the pilot keeps himself on his 
course. A pilot may never see the ground from the time of his take-off 
at point of departure until he lets down through the clouds or fog 
over the airport at which he is to make his next landing; and yet, 
aided by the navigation facilities of the airways, he knows at all times 
exactly where he is. 

A civil airway is the navigable air above a strip of the earth’s 
surface between designated points—a strip set b} 7- CAA regulation at 
a width of 20 miles but during the present emergency cut to ten. 
The reason for this is the presence of Army, Navy, and other training 
fields located on or near airways. Hundreds of their short flights 
were constantly impinging upon small portions of the 20-mile-wide 










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strips, and it was felt that to file and clear individual flight plans for 
each of these flights would place an excessive burden on each training 
operation. Instead, the airways were narrowed. The Services have 
agreed to keep all training planes outside of the airways, except when 
necessary for landing and take-off purposes and for cross-country 
flights, when the pilots wfill observe regular CAA procedures. This 
narrowing of the airways also provides more space for the establish¬ 
ment of military danger areas, such as gunnery ranges, without en¬ 
croachment on the airways. 

At present, all navigable air above 17,000 feet altitude is reserved 
for military traffic, and there are certain air space reservations, estab¬ 
lished by Presidential proclamation, that must be detoured—as for 
example over defense plants and Navy yards. The CAA designates 
airways by naming definite points, such as radio range stations, and 
extending the center line of the airway through the center of the 
points specified. Airways are direct routes (as the crow flies) except 
for bends to take in centers of population. All large population 
centers are located on one or more of the civil airways. For this 
reason, the airways often follow the routes of railroads and highways, 
though in the case of the Alcan Highway across Canada to Alaska, it 
is the highway that follows the previously established airway. One 
of the future developments visualized by CAA is the bypassing of 
metropolitan centers, so that through air traffic will be able to avoid 
congestion over airports. 

The civil airways of the United States now total over 35,000 miles, 
an increase of more than 700% since 1927 and almost 100% since 
1932. A number of new airways have been established since the 
war primarily to meet Army and Navy requirements, both within 
the United States and leading to and from many of our insular 
possessions and bases. 

Along the Federal Airways system within the continental United 
States the CAA is today operating 311 lighted intermediate (emer¬ 
gency landing) fields, 142 flashing beacons, and 2,098 rotating bea¬ 
cons. At the request of the armed forces, instrument landing sys¬ 
tems—for use in fog and other bad weather—are being installed in 
more than 100 fields throughout the country. The first fully devel¬ 
oped instrument landing system was put into operation in 1940 at 
Indianapolis, where it was developed at the CAA Experimental 
Station. 

For the benefit of all airmen, the CAA maintains and operates 408 
intermediate-frequency radio range and marker stations, 197 ultra- 
high frequency radio fan markers, and 72 ultra-high frequency radio 
range stations (which are expected to be increased to 143 during 
1943). Also in the airways system are 446 weather-reporting sta¬ 
tions, joined by a 54,000-mile teletype circuit for quick reporting of 


















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meteorological conditions from coast to coast. Traffic from point to 
point along the airways is directed from 23 control centers, located 
at major airports strategically chosen so as to cover the entire U. S. 
The control centers use a 10,400-mile teletype circuit and a 35,745- 
mile interphone circuit to check and clear movements of swiftly 
traveling aircraft along the airways. Lastly, at 74 designated fields, 
which include all principal air terminals in the country, the CAA 
operates airport control towers. This number is being increased, at 
the request of the military, to 120 or more this year. American 
aviation has come a long way from the first night transcontinental 
mail flight in 1921, made without benefit of airway aids, the pilots 
being guided along part of the route by bonfires set by obliging 
farmers. 

In 1942 there were 6 million controlled—“flight plan”—aircraft 
movements along the airways, and for 1943 the estimate is 13 to 14 
million, 95% of them military or semi-military. This is a contrast 
from 1938, when approximately 300,000 movements of aircraft were 
handled by the CAA traffic control centers. (By 1950, CAA expects 
60,000,000 aircraft movements over the airways.) With so many 
planes in the air, it is obvious that definite, pre-determined flight 
paths and procedures are vital to safety and efficiency. 

Planes flying the airways report their location at official reporting 
points—over radio stations along the airways and over each point 
marking the intersection of two or more airways. These reporting 
points are never more than 100 miles apart. Flight progress boards 
are maintained at the control centers, showing the location of all 
planes flying on schedule in the area. According to Civil Air Regula¬ 
tions, eastbound and northbound planes maintain odd thousand- 
foot levels in the air, and westbound and southbound planes even 
thousand-foot levels. 

A plane arriving over an airport at which it wishes to land, follows 
instructions sent out by radio from the airport control tower which 
tell the pilot when he may begin to decrease his altitude. Sometimes 
his plane—along with others arriving over the airport at the same 
time—is obliged to keep circling in the air in a “stack” at designated 
altitudes, for extended periods, until gradually the lower altitudes and 
finally the landing area become free of traffic and he is allowed to 
come in. 

The most striking example of development of American air trans¬ 
portation due to the war is the Alaskan system, which since 1941 has 
been vastly improved and extended until today Alaska has as fine a 
system of airways and airports as any section of the United States. 
The Civil Aeronautics Board in December of 1942 granted operating 
certificates to 21 Alaskan air carriers, formally authorizing the existing 
pattern of air service and for the first time bringing these operations 



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within the economic provisions of the Civil Aeronautics Act. The 
Board authorized charter trips by any of the 21 certificated carriers 
to any point in Alaska, thus providing air service which reaches into 
every section of Alaska. The Canadian system of airways across 
the border is closely integrated and coordinated with the United States 
and the Alaskan system, so that the three virtually constitute a single 
continental system north of the Rio Grande, the only one of its kind 
and the largest and most efficient in the world. It is the only airways 
system in the world set up to handle properly mass traffic with 
maximum safety, and it presents a contrast to the pre-war European 
airways systems, where types of control were not uniform but varied 
from country to country. 

Flights ranging beyond the American-Canadian-Alaskan network 
of airways must of course be accomplished with considerably less 
accurate guidance, although present-day aids in transoceanic flying— 
including the use of improved compasses and direction finders in the 
airplane, capable of picking up radio signals over long distances—are 
extensive indeed as compared with facilities existing even as recently 
as the outbreak of the war. Even today, however, transoceanic 
flyers frequently resort to celestial navigation for their guidance, a 
combination of two or more means of navigation being desirable 
from the standpoint of safety. 

The Federal Airways Service is now operating six intercontinental 
superradio stations capable of communicating with aircraft at any 
point on the globe. These stations are at New York, New Orleans, 
San Francisco, Seattle, Honolulu, and Anchorage and have been of 
inestimable value to the armed forces, placing the United States 
several years ahead of any other country in the world in the develop¬ 
ment of intercontinental airways. They are used solely for the war 
effort, to provide weather and navigation information. In their 
combined range, they blanket the world, providing communication 
between this country and a plane in flight anywhere on the globe. 
They are operated by CAA, with the Army providing security in 
the coding and decoding of messages. CAA radio engineers are now 
cooperating with the armed forces in establishing a vast network of 
airway communications systems in the North Atlantic area, in South 
America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Due to the rapid 
development of facilities everywhere, the world routes flown by our 
aircraft are at present in a constant state of change. 

The immediate post-war problem of the airways, as seen by CAA, 
will be to rebuild the entire domestic airways system by substituting 
ultra-high frequency for the old standard intermediate frequencies 
ranging between 200 and 400 kc. Ultra-high frequency will eliminate 
static and provide a visual as well as an aural course, if not omni¬ 
directional courses. Among the innovations will be: two voice chan- 







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nels on every radio range station, the employment of ultra-high 
frequency for traffic control, ultra-high frequency localizers for all 
important airports, with glide path, and ultra-high frequency markers 
to permit the pilot to land under instrument conditions. 

New electronic control devices, including radar, will also play a 
large part in post-war aviation. 

Airports 

Exclusive of certain military airdromes, there will be about 865 
major airports in the United States by the end of 1943, all of them with 
paved runways of 3,500 feet or more, capable of handling the largest 
craft. Less than 100 such fields existed in 1940. In addition to these, 
there are well over 2,000 lesser fields. 

With few exceptions, all major civilian airports belong to municipal¬ 
ities and other political subdivisions, which operate the fields as public 
facilities except insofar as their use is restricted at the present time 
by Army and Navy requirements, which are provided for by contract. 

Most airports are constructed with the aid of Federal funds, under 
specifications drawn up by the CAA. For the fiscal years 1941-43 
Congress has appropriated $399,333,050 for the National Defense Air¬ 
port Development Program. Such development is limited to sites 
within the United States and its possessions, designated by the Army 
and the Navy as essential to national defense and the successful prose¬ 
cution of the war. 

Within the past few years, numerous new airports for the use of 
military transport and combat planes have, of course, been constructed 
with American and Allied funds throughout the United Nations. 
After the war many of these fields will be available for civilian air 
transport use. 

Pilots 

The CAA’s Civilian Pilot Training Program, inaugurated late in 
1938, which through instruction in universities and at flying fields en¬ 
abled young Americans to secure civilian pilot licenses of various 
grades, is now known as the CAA War Training Service and foims a 
prelude to regular Army and Navy combat flight training. It has 
absorbed many civilian pilots as instructors. Many of the pilots fly¬ 
ing both air-line and military transport planes today are graduates of 
the Civilian Pilot Training Program. 

There are four main categories of civilian pilot certificates: student, 
private, commercial, and air-line transport. A commercial pilot, who 
is licensed to carry freight and passengers on a chartered but only on 
a nonscheduled basis, must be 18, a citizen, literate, must measure up 


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to certain minimum physical requirements, must pass a written ex¬ 
amination on the theory and practice of flight and maintenance of 
craft and engine, and must have logged at least 200 hours of solo 
flight. An air-line transport pilot must be at least 23, a citizen and a 
high school graduate or its equivalent, as judged by the CAA, in 
general experience and aeronautical experience, knowledge, and skill. 
He must pass a written examination in all phases of the practice and 
theory of flight, navigation, meteorology, and operation of the Federal 
Airways. He must have a commercial pilot’s rating and have logged 
at least 1,200 hours of solo flight within the past eight years—at least 
500 of them on cross-country flights. He must pass a flight test on 
take-offs, turns, landings, and certain routine maneuvers, as well as 
in tuning and use of radio for communication with the ground and 
following the directional beams of radio range stations. 

As contrasted with less than 25,000 in 1938, there were 100,787 
licensed pilots in the country at the end of 1941, the last date for 
which figures are available. Of these, 15,142 possessed commercial 
certificates and 1,587 air-line transport certificates. 

Today, the number of pilots in the United States is a military 
secret. The Army and Navy have both absorbed many of the com¬ 
mercial and air-line transport pilots and, in addition, train their own 
pilots for transport and other flying without awarding certificates. 
After the war, the number of hours put in by these military pilots on 
transport craft in the Army and Navy will be accepted by CAA as 
qualification for obtaining either commercial or air-line transport 
certificate. In all branches of the services, there is a serious deficiency 
of men with experience as measured by hours of flying time. 

Civil air regulations permit air-lines pilots to fly a maximum of 100 
hours a month, 1,200 hours a year, for the duration of the war—an 
increase of 200 hours a year over the pre-war limitation. The Air 
Lines Pilots’Association is an affiliate of the American Federation of 
Labor, as are the Flight Radio Officers’ Association and the Air Line 
Flight Engineers’ Association. 












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A CATALOGUE OF AMERICAN TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT 


This list of the chief models of transport aircraft now in service has 
been compiled for the purpose of showing to what extent America is 
making use of her available planes for the purposes of wartime air 
transport. 

In the following descriptions, it should be borne in mind that due 
to constant changes being made in the aircraft structure for various 
transport uses, as for example the addition of winterizing equipment 
and life rafts, all figures concerning weight can be only approximate. 
Average cruising speeds, computed on around 60 percent or less of 
horsepower of the engine, can also be only approximate; they depend 
on altitude, range to be covered, grade of fuel used, weather condi¬ 
tions to be met, and the like. 

The engines of all the planes in the list are radial air cooled, due to 
the preponderance of this development in the United States. 

The letter C, in Army designations, signifies cargo. In Navy desig¬ 
nations, J signifies General Utility Transport; R, multi-engine; PB, 
patrol bomber. 

The weight of one gallon of gasoline is approximately 6 pounds. 

Certain details of performance on some planes have of necessity 
been omitted because they come within the realm of secret military 
information. 

Except where otherwise specified, all planes in the list are built of 
aluminum alloy in the standard American production type of con¬ 
struction. 

The Chief Air-Lines Planes 

Douglas DC-3—“The workhorse of the air lines.” No models 
delivered commercially after January 1943; now being turned out in 
large quantities in military models only, with variations as follows: 

Army C-47, “Skytrain,” with large door for loading of cargo, metal 
floor, and reinforced landing gear. 

Army C-53, “Skytrooper,” with wood floor, benches for troops, 
and tow cleat on tail for glider towing. 

Navy designations of the same plane are R4D-1, 3, 4, and 5, accord¬ 
ing to details in structure. 

General specifications: 

Two 1,200-hp. engines. 

Standard gross weight for commercial operations 25,200 lbs., but 
the C-47 is frequently flown at 29,000 lbs. Empty, 17,000 to 18,000 
lbs. according to equipment. 


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Normal fuel capacity, 822 gals. 

Average cruising speed, 170-180 miles. 

Average cargo load, 4,500 to 5,000 lbs. on 1,000-mile flight. 

This plane has a normal limiting range, without refueling, of not 
over 1,500 miles. It is seldom used for round-trip transoceanic 
work, and is flown across the ocean chiefly when being delivered 
abroad or on island routes with minimum nonstop distances. How¬ 
ever, the normal fuel capacity can be almost doubled by the installa¬ 
tion of additional tanks in the fuselage for overwater long-range 
flights. Thus heavily loaded chiefly with fuel, the plane can have a 
range of 3,000 miles, and has frequently flown from Hamilton Field, 
California, to Hickam Field, Honolulu—in some instances at an 
initial gross weight of 31,000 lbs. 

First used as a passenger plane on the airlines in 1936, to carry from 
21 to 24 passengers and a crew of three, this plane rapidly became the 
most popular American transport in the air. Passenger comfort, 
good-sized cargo and mail space, price, size, speed, and finally relia¬ 
bility, due to extensive development and use have all been factors in 
its widespread popularity. This plane formed the bulk of the planes 
taken over from the air lines, and 203 are still operating commercially. 
The DC-3 has flown more air line passenger-miles than any other 
model in the United States. Some in existence have accumulated 
up to 22,000 flying hours and many are at present being used 12 hours 
(not, of course, continuous) out of the 24. 

For military personnel* and cargo transport it is being used in 
greater numbers than any other model. It was used in the evacuation 
of Burma and Hongkong, carrying as many as 74 light passengers at 
a time. (Troop-carrying capacity of the C-53 is normally 28, plus 
crew of 4.) It flew American and British paratroops the 1,500 miles 
from England to North Africa. Generalissmo Chiang Kai-shek is 
supposed to have said, “Give me a hundred BC-3’s and the Japanese 
can have the Burma Road.” The C-47 will hold two jeeps, or three 
airplane engines in boxes. 

Now this plane is being used for comparatively short-range opera¬ 
tions—for carrying paratroops and air-borne infantry, for glider 
towing, command use, and shorter and front-line cargo deliveries. 
For more extensive operations it is rapidly being replaced by the 
longer-range and larger C-46, which at 1,500-mile range will carry 
almost twice as much cargo. 

Boeing 314 Flying Boat—“Clipper.” Several of these planes are 
being operated on schedule by a commercial air line on routes between 
the United States, Hawaii, the British Isles, and Africa. It was in a 
Boeing 314 that President Roosevelt made the over-water hops of his 

trip to Africa. 


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General specifications: 

Four 1,600 hp. engines of the Wright R-2600 model. 

Standard gross weight, 84,000 lbs., in commercial operations, but 
has been used up to 88,000 lbs., with heavy cargo. Normal com¬ 
mercial “useful load” of 38,000 lbs., i. e., cargo (including passengers), 
fuel, and crew. 

Average cruising speed, 143 statute miles. 

Normal fuel capacity, 5,448 gals. 

In service since 1939, the Boeing 314 is still the largest airplane 
in general use, and carries the largest passenger loads the longest 
distances. Licensed to carry 74 passengers and 15 crew, the Clipper 
did so on short hops only (as from New York to Bermuda); on trans¬ 
oceanic trips it averaged half as many, plus cargo and mail. Pas¬ 
senger capacity is of course determined by range; the plane has flown 
up to 58 passengers across the ocean. It is capable of flying nonstop 
from New York to Foynes, Ireland, and has done so on occasion. But 
such flights are uneconomical for any plane; the large quantities of 
fuel required greatly reduce the passenger, mail, and cargo load. 
Refueling stops are therefore made at intermediate points. 

Of the nine compartments in this plane, two are still equipped with 
six berths apiece, but seven have been stripped of a total of about 
a ton of sound proofing and passenger seats and berths to make room 
for light cargo and mail. As with all flying boats, the size of the 
Boeing 314’s doors and openings does not permit the loading of cargo 
as bulky as jeeps or airplane engines. 

Lockheed 18—“Lodestar.” Army designations C-56A, B, C, D; 
C-59; C-60, and C-60A; C-66. Navy R50-1, 2, 3, 4. 

Another popular air lines plane, smaller and faster than the DC-3. 
Together with the well-known Hudson and Ventura bombers, it stems 
from an earlier Lockheed 14, previously used by the air lines and in 
extensive private flying, but now superseded by the Lodestar. First 
used in 1940, thirteen are still in commercial operation. 

General specifications: 

Two 1,200-hp. engines. 

Standard gross weight, 18,500 lbs. but being used up to 21,500. 
Empty weight, 12,075 lbs. 

Average cruising speed, 180 miles. 

Normal fuel capacity, 644 gals. 

Built to carry 14 passengers and 3 crew, the “Lodestar” is used by 
the armed services for personnel transport and small cargo-carrying 
jobs, but is being replaced by larger planes. It is used transoceanically 
only on the short-hop, island stepping-stone routes. 

Boeing 307—“Stratoliner,” C-75. The first airplane to introduce 
a pressurized cabin in actual use in air transportation. Pressurizing 
comes into use at altitudes of 8,000 feet. The ratio of the air in the 






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pressurized cabin to the outside air increases proportionately with 
altitude. In flights up to 15,000 feet, air pressure equal to that at 
8,000-foot altitude is maintained in the cabin; up to 20,000 feet, 
equal to 10,000-foot altitude; above 20,000, a pressure differential of 
2.5 pounds per square inch. 

General specifications: 

Four 1,100-hp. engines. 

Standard gross weight, 45,000 lbs. Empty, 29,000. Cargo capac¬ 
ity about 8,000 lbs. on 1,000-mile flight. 

' Normal fuel capacity, 1,700 gals. 

Average cruising speed, 185 miles. 

First used in 1940, with a capacity of 33 passengers and 5 crew, 
this plane was formerly used considerably in establishing ATC 
services over routes to Africa and India. Three are being operated 
commercially by an air line in the Caribbean area and others are 
being flown under Army contract air-line services. The plane is no 
longer being built, and in the ATC is being replaced by the C-54A, 
more efficient as a cargo plane. 

Vought-Sikorsky VS-44A—“Flying Ace.” A flying boat with 
longer range than the Boeing 314 and with faster cruising speed on 
short range. 

General specifications: 

Four 1,300-hp. engines. 

Standard gross weight, 59,225 lbs. 

Normal fuel capacity, 3,820 gals. 

Average cruising speed, 142 statute miles on long-distance flights. 

This plane first came into service in 1942 to carry 28 passengers and 
11 crew overseas or 44 passengers and 8 crew on short flights. Like 
the Clippers, and for the same reason, the Flying Aces are preferably 
refueled at an intermediate point when flying between the United 
States and the British Isles. 

Older Model Airlines Planes 

Sikorsky Flying Boats—“Clippers.” S-42B, 4-engine; and S-43 
(Amphibian; Navy JRS-1), 2-engine. Both these planes, as well as 
the Consolidated “Catalina” flying boat mentioned below, are being 
flown by an airline under contract to the Rubber Development Cor¬ 
poration, a subsidiary of the RFC operating under directive of the 
Office of the Rubber Director, to take personnel and critical materials 
to the Amazon Valley and to bring out personnel, rubber, and other 
materials. The S-43 is also being flown in Hawaii. 

Martin 130 Flying Boat—“China Clipper” type. Three of these 
planes were built in 1935 and pioneered in scheduled trans-Paciflc 
operations. One is still flying between Honolulu and San Francisco. 




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4-engine. Standard gross weight, 52,000 lbs. 4,077 gals, normal 
fuel capacity. Average cruising speed, 130 statute miles. 

Boeing 247 series. Begun in 1933, all older models of this plane were 
converted to the type of the 247-D, begun in 1934. This was the 
first of the modern, low-wing, all-metal transport airplanes. Desig¬ 
nated by the Army as C-73, it is used in the ATC’s Transition Trans¬ 
port Training Program. 2 engines. Standard gross weight, 14,000 
lbs. 273 gals, normal fuel capacity. Average cruising speed, 
165 miles. 

Lockheed 10 series. Several versions of this plane, beginning 
in 1934, led up to the Lockheed 10-E, built in 1935, with space for 
10 passengers and 2 crew. Army C-36, but not in extensive use. 
2 engines. 10,500 lbs. standard gross weight. 250 gals, normal fuel 
capacity. Average cruising speed, 150 miles. 

Douglas DC-2. The forerunner of the DC-3, first built in 1934 
and now used here and there by the ATC, under designations C-32A, 
C-33, and C-34 for training purposes. 19,000 lbs. standard gross 
weight. 510 gals, normal fuel capacity. 

Bombers 

Some bomber planes are being used for transport purposes without 
being altered in any way. Bombers which are being ferried abroad 
for foreign service, for example, carry personnel and sometimes 
strategic cargo with them on the trip; and then, after arrival, go into 
combat service. 

Several types of bomber, however, are being used regularly in trans¬ 
port service, either in models which have been converted individually 
for transport work by being stripped of some of their armor or in 
models manufactured in converted design specifically for transport 
purposes. Converted bombers usually carry auxiliary gas tanks 
in their bomb bays. 

Chief among the bombers being manufactured in converted design 
are— 

Consolidated C-87 —“ Liberator Express .” The transport version 
of the B-24 “Liberator Bomber,” being manufactured as a transport 
plane on a separate production line. Navy PB4Y-1. 

General specifications: 

Four 1,200-hp. Pratt and Whitney R-1830 engines. 

Standard gross weight, 29 tons. 

Average cruising speed as transport, 191 miles. 

Normal fuel capacity, 2,650 gals. 

Average cargo capacity, 10,000 lbs. on 1,000-mile flights; 6,000 lbs. 
on longest transoceanic ranges. 

With its high wing, its enlarged sidedoor, and tricycle landing gear, 
the C-87 is an easy ship to load, but like all bombers its volume of 


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cubic capacity for freight is small. It will hold 20 passengers and 5 
crew; no jeeps. With added gas tanks the plane has a 3,000-mile 
range and is in constant transoceanic use, including company ferry 
operations in the Pacific. At present more C-87’s are being used by 
the ATC than any other four-engine plane, but it is being superseded 
by the C-54A, which has better cargo facilities and more efficient 
performance. 

It was in a C-87 that Wendell Willkie made his round-the-world 
flight. It is a fast plane and holds several records. 

Consolidated “Coronado” Flying Boat. A big patrol bomber, 
now being converted in quantity on Consolidated^ production line 
for Navy transport duties. Navy designation as bomber PB2Y-3; 
as transport, PB2Y-3R. Along with the PBM-3R (below), it will 
be the Navy’s principal transport plane. Its equipment includes a 
large cargo door, cargo flooring, and cargo handling facilities. Four 
1,200-hp. Pratt and Whitney R-1830 engines. Standard gross weight, 
66,000 lbs., with cargo capacity of 20,000 lbs. on a 1,000-mile flight. 
Average cruising speed, 170 miles. 

Martin “Mariner” Flying Boat. Another Navy patrol bomber, 
being converted for transport use under designation PBM-3R. Two 
1,700-lip. Wright R-2600 engines, 24 tons gross weight. Average 
cruising speed, 150 miles; 3,000-mile range. 

One plane of this model has been loaned by the Navy to the Defense 
Plant Corporation, which has used it during the past year for the 
transport of vital cargo between Miami and Cuba. 

Consolidated “Catalina” Flying Boat. Another, smaller, Navy 
patrol bomber and glider tower, PBY-5; in amphibian model, PBY- 
5A. A number of both models have been modified for cargo-carrying 
duties. Like the Sikorsky Flying Boats, the “Catalina” is being 
used for the Rubber Development Corporation in the Amazon Valley. 
Two 1,200-hp. engines. Empty weight, 17,500 lbs; cargo capacity 
up to 15,000 lbs.; 3,000-mile range in military operations. 

Two Newer Airplanes, Designed for Commercial Passenger 

Operation, but Diverted to Military use Before Ever Being 

Used Commercially 

Douglas DC-4—“Skymaster.” Army designation C-54 as pas¬ 
senger transport; C-54 A as cargo carrier. Navy, R5D. 

Introduced in 1942, this big ship, more than twice the size of the 
DC-3, was designed to carry 42 passengers in commercial operations 
up to 1,000 miles, and now constantly carries 26 overseas. It will 
carry 54 hospital litters, or a light tank, or a heavy truck and has an 
interior hoist for loading purposes. 






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General specifications: 

Four 1,350-hp. engines. 

Standard gross weight 65,000 lbs. (12,500 pay load) as C-54; 
66,000 lbs. (14,000 lbs. cargo capacity) as C-54A. 

Average cruising speed up to 200 miles. 

Fuel capacity, 3,700 gals, with four fuselage tanks. 

The DC—4 is considered to be the most efficient plane for over 
1,500-mile and transoceanic operations. It is supplanting the C-87 
as a long-range cargo and passenger carrier. 

Uurtiss-Wright—•“Commando.” Army C—46. Originally designed 
as Model CW-20 to carry 30 passengers and 4 crew, and first operated 
in 1941 on British government airways, the C-46 is now considered 
the most efficient two-engine cargo carrier for hops under 1,500 
miles. It carries 40 paratroops, or several jeeps, or two fight tanks of 
4,000 lbs. each. It can carry a loading ramp and hoisting gear and 
is fitted with a glider-towing cleat. 

General specifications: 

Two 2,000-hp. Pratt and Whitney R-2800 engines. 

Standard gross weight, 48,000 lbs.; up to 50,000 lbs. for emergencies. 
Empty weight, 27,598 lbs. Pay load, 10,000 lbs. on 1,000-mile flight. 

Normal fuel capacity, 1,000 gals. 

The C-46, the largest of the two-engine land transports, is rapidly 
replacing the DC-3 as a cargo carrier. 

Planes at Present Under Development 

A. THREE PLANES ALREADY BEING FLIGHT TESTED 

Curtiss-Wright—■“Caravan.” C-76. The first plane to be designed 
primarily as a short-route cargo carrier. Constructed entirely of ply¬ 
wood, of which it employs 50,000 sq. ft., the C-76 is being built in 
large part under subcontract with a Virginia plastics firm, a piano 
company in Ohio, and a Kentucky plant which has been manufac¬ 
turing tobacco hogsheads, Army bunks, and bodies for trucks and 
station wagons. This plane has tricycle landing gear, and the floor 
of the cargo hold is only 36 inches off the ground. It loads both at 
the nose and at the side, has an interior track hoist, and is fitted to 
tow gliders. Speed is sacrificed for loading ease, for slow landing, 
and for short field operations. 

General specifications: 

Two engines. Standard gross weight, 35,000 lbs. Empty, 20,000 
lbs. Maximum fuel capacity, 600 gals. Average cruising speed, 160 
miles. 

Lockheed “Constellation.” C-69. This plane has been designed to 
fill the need for a long-range passenger transport plane with a pres- 























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surized cabin, to fly in the substratosphere at altitudes above 20,000 
feet. 

General specifications: 

Four 2,200-hp. Wright R-3350 engines. 

Standard gross weight, 73,500 lbs. 

Fuel capacity, 4,800 gals. 

Average cruising speed 255 miles at sea level, increasing to 300 at 
19,000 ft. 

The “ Constellation/’ with its heavy weight empty, is not intended 
for cargo carrying, but is the newest development for post-war com¬ 
mercial passenger use, at present being tested as a troop carrier. 
Increased speed and economy result from flying “above the weather”; 
and at full power, at altitudes up to 30,000 and 35,000 ft., the “Con¬ 
stellation” is designed to carry 55 passengers at a higher speed than is 
reached by a Jap Zero pursuit ship. It is designed to be able to 
operate at 25,000 feet with three of its engines, if necessary, and at 
16,500 feet with only two. Cabin pressure is kept as at 8,000 ft. 

The “Constellation” is the largest American land transport yet 
built, with a wing spread of 123 feet and length of 95. (DC-3 wing 

spread 95 feet, length 64% feet.) The wing of the “Constellation” 
was developed as a result of tests on the wing of the Lockheed “Light¬ 
ning” military pursuit ship—the distinctive plane with twin tail 
booms. 

Martin “Mars” Flying Boat.—Navy JRM-1. Probably the 
largest aircraft in existence, the “Mars” was originally built as a 
Navy patrol bomber, but has been converted for cargo use, with a 
loading track and large hatches. It has four Wright 18-cylinder 
engines of over 2,000-hp. each, 3-blade propellers, 140,000 lbs. 
gross weight. Fuel capacity is “about a tank-car load”; wing span, 
200 feet; length, 117 feet 3 inches. 

B. THREE PLANES NOT YET AT THE FLIGHT-TEST STATE 

Waco C-62. All wood. Two engines. 33,500 lbs. gross weight. 

Fairchild C-82. A part-metal, 50,000-lb. cargo plane with a rear 
door that can be lowered as a ramp and with an interior hoist. 

Kaiser-Hughes HK-1 Flying Boat. A giant, all-plywood ship, 
400,000 lbs. gross weight, being built primarily for cargo carrying. 
Static testing of some sections has begun. Eight engines, 8,000 gals, 
fuel capacity, 120,000 lbs. cargo capacity. Average cruising speed, 
174 miles. By far the largest aircraft actually under construction, 
with a 320-foot wing spread and a 218-foot length, the HK-1 is being 
built under contract to the Defense Plant Corporation, a subsidiary 
of the RFC. 


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